Brian Thompson: Addington Raceway CEO on the ticket sales, weather for Cup Day

It's Cup Day in Christchurch and the mood at Addington is upbeat. 

Gates open for today's New Zealand Trotting Cup at 11am. 

Ticket sales are up 10% this year after prices for general admission tickets were slashed from $40 to just $25. 

Addington Chief Executive Brian Thompson told Mike Hosking they've tried to make the event more accessible. 

He says they wanted to give everyone the opportunity to get down and enjoy the racing. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's very big day for the old hometown. Of course,

(00:02):
Addington fires up for Cup Day. Addington Raceway CEO Brian
Thompson's with us. Brian, Morning, good a Mike, Ho are
you doing very well? I stated very boldly on the
program yesterday. I think I'm right on this. I don't
think it's ever rained on race day, has it?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
No? I think the first year I was here, back
in war twenty eleven, we had a bit of a
sprinkle before eleven, but that was its day was a cracker.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
And today's today's gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Today's a typical Canterbury spring day, full of sunshine, eighteen
nineteen degrees, light breeze, perfect day for racing.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Are you in the fashion in the field this year? Brian?
Have you dressed yourself up a bit?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh? Yeah, I'm cranking a pretty good suit at the moment,
but it won't be entering. Got to make it fair
for everyone else.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Very good. I like a man of confidence. What's this
twenty five dollar versus forty dollar thing? Was that a
cost of living idea?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
And clearly it's worked, yeah, one hundred percent. So I
think these days there's so many choices out there for
people to go to events and experienced it for entertainment.
I think what we try to do is just to
give everyone the opportunity to get here and enjoy the
racing aspect of it, and it has definitely worked.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
How many people are you expecting?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Odd, We're set up for about fifteen thousand, so if
we can get near to that will be pretty happy.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Nice stuff. Will you go well and enjoy it? Brian
appreciate it very much. Brian Thompson, who's cranking a pretty
good suit this morning. I like his style.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news Talks.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
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